As any caregiver can tell you, it’s not an easy job to tend to an ailing loved one. That’s what Emma Heming Willis, the wife of Die Hard star Bruce Willis, has found in the wake of his aphasia diagnosis.
“[The] amount of care for everyone else within my household had taken a toll on my mental health and overall health,” the model says in an interview with the motherhood-focused website The Bump. “And it served no one in my family.”
She adds, “I put my family’s needs above my own, which I found does not make me any kind of hero.”
Emma is mom to Willis’ youngest daughters Mabel, 10, and Evelyn, 8, and stepmom to Willis’ daughters with ex-wife Demi Moore: Rumer, 33, Scout, 30, and 28-year-old Tallulah.
She explained her “struggle” with maintaining her self-care routine in the interview, considering her younger daughters and her caring for her husband.
“Someone told me not long ago that when you over-care for someone, you end up under-caring for yourself. That stopped me in my tracks and really resonated with me,” she said.
Instead, the 43-year-old now focuses on her “baseline” needs, calling exercise “a must” for her.
“It’s a time I can disconnect and can do something that I know makes me feel good overall. I think it’s important to find that one thing that makes you feel good and build from there.”
Emma co-signed an Instagram post with Moore and Willis’ daughters in March that revealed 67-year-old Bruce was stepping away from acting as he deals with the degenerative neurological condition.
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